Suspect in Mo. deputy shooting death apprehended

MINERAL POINT, Mo. (AP) – A man shot and killed a sheriff’s deputy in Missouri early Saturday as emergency workers loaded an unconscious person into the back of an ambulance, authorities said.

Christopher Parsons, who became a deputy in October, was shot and killed while responding to a call around 2 a.m. about an unconscious person near Mineral Point, a community of roughly 350 residents about 80 miles southeast of St. Louis, said Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper Juston Wheetley.

“As they were loading (the unconscious person) into the back of the ambulance they were ambushed,” Wheetley said. He said investigators don’t know of any motive.

Wheetley said the shooting suspect, Gary Sancegrow, 30, of Mineral Point, was taken into custody without incident at about 5:15 p.m. He said people who knew Sancegrow brought him to a checkpoint that law enforcement had set up in the Mineral Point area.

The suspect had run into a heavily wooded area after the shooting and was wearing camouflage clothing, Wheetley said.

Wheetley said Sancegrow was the only suspect being sought in the death.

Several law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service, had joined in the search, which had been going on all day Saturday. The sheriff’s department also had put up a $2,500 reward for information leading to Sancegrow’s arrest.

Wheetley said it was unclear if the reward prompted Sancegrow’s arrest.

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